Rocky mountain power battery incentive5/17/2023 ![]() He compared the ability to sell the energy he produces back to the grid to someone growing vegetables in a garden, canning them and selling the produce to others. The did it “because my wife and I want to minimize our dependence on the carbon economy,” Bloomberg said. Altogether, Bloomberg said his household invested $250,000 in their renewable energy system. That’s in addition to 135 kilowatts of battery storage. Jason Bloomberg, a Cheyenne physician, said that the discussion of the bill focused on rooftop solar, which ignores residents with small wind systems.īloomberg has solar systems that track the sun, as well as four residential-scale wind turbines. “I believe it simply would allow a sorting out of this issue in a reasonable manner.” “An agency that has no dog in the fight, that is neutral, has the expertise to figure out whether there’s a subsidy or not,” Parrish said. She said there’s a benefit to having the PSC determine the rates residential producers receive. Parrish said she does not have rooftop solar on her home, but many friends and neighbors have installed systems on their houses. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily)Ĭheyenne resident Denise Parrish argued that whether or not there’s a subsidy could be determined if the PSC were setting rates, as the bill would allow. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, discusses Senate File 92 on Thursday. “It’s taken the rooftop solar industry 20 years for that to occur, for it to get to the 0.5%,” he said. The council, Burrows said, estimates that retail sales from net metering grew in the last two years from 0.3% to 0.5% of all retail sales. ![]() John Burrows, energy and climate policy director with the Wyoming Outdoor Council, told lawmakers that rooftop solar producers account for 1.8% of customers in the state. “Removing net metering would stifle our state’s growing solar industry,” Deuter warned, as it would eliminate an incentive to install rooftop solar. Proponents argued that residents with these residential renewable energy systems are wealthier and shouldn’t be supported by other ratepayers.Ĭase said he’s heard a lot of “vitriol” over the bill prior to the meeting and that, “I’ve lost friends over this bill.”Ĭlair Deuter, with the Powder River Basin Resource Council, argued that subsidizing isn’t happening. Opponents of SF 92 argued that it disincentives the installation of small wind and rooftop solar, kills jobs in that industry and undermines the freedom of customers who don’t want to be beholden to a public grid for electricity. Whether or not net metering was producing a subsidy for small wind and rooftop solar was a point of contention throughout a committee hearing on the bill, which ultimately passed 3-2. To protect those who have already invested in rooftop solar systems, the bill contains a grandfather clause of 15 years in which they would continue operating under the current net metering system through 2039. Those who can’t afford or are unable to have such systems end up paying for those who do, bill supporters argue. Since this option isn’t available to poorer customers who can’t afford rooftop solar, it ultimately produces subsidies for those who have rooftop solar and small wind turbines. Cale Case, R-Lander, who sponsored Senate File 92, argued that the current net metering system pays residential producers a variable retail rate for the power they produce, which is higher than wholesale rates. The compensation system would instead go before the Wyoming Public Service Commission, which would decide what rate they are paid for the surplus energy. ***For All Things Wyoming, Sign-Up For Our Daily Newsletter***īy Kevin Killough, State Energy with residential rooftop solar installations and those who work in the industry gave the Senate Corporations Committee an earful on a bill that would free electric utilities from being obligated to buy their surplus electricity.
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